‘Tis the season to go camping! There’s nothing like packing up the last of the Christmas leftovers, loading up the car, and taking the family away for some fun together away from the distractions of modern life. The key to making it a roaring success is some quality planning and using our clever camping hacks.
Be organised (and make a lunch basket)
It’s obvious and boring, but it really does make a difference – including to where you end up going. Camping grounds can book up fast, so try to book well in advance.
Make sure you think carefully about the right location for your family. Will being near the water be fun – or too challenging if you have young kids? Is it important that there’s a good playground nearby, or do you want to be close to a town for the activities? Think about what different members of your family might need too – will packing an extra pup tent for your teen be a good idea, so they can have their own space?
Start drawing up packing lists ahead of time too so you know what you still need to get. It’s much less of a financial hit if you can buy extra camping gear slowly and make the most of the sales.
And make a rough meal plan before you go to make shopping easier (and to leave you more time on the beach). Don’t forget the click-and-collect option at a supermarket near your destination. Then you don’t need to try and keep your colds cold on the way there and you don’t waste so much precious camping time in the supermarket. Keep the meals simple – homemade pizza, sausages and veges, chicken kebabs, and salad. Make it a holiday for everyone.
#Hack 1: Have a lunch ‘basket’ available, where kids that are old enough can help themselves and put together their own lunches. You can do this with snacks too. This helps make it more of a holiday for the parents too.
Have a practice run (and gamify set up)
Have a camping weekend in the backyard or just down the road to make sure you’ve got everything sorted. This helps take the stress out of going away for real, and if you do this close to your actual camping trip, you may be able to leave many things packed up and ready to go.
Think about what you’re going to store everything in for travelling and at the campsite. Good packing solutions can make life much easier. Do you prefer using plastic bins, or maybe the large carry bags from the local dollar store?
#Hack 2: Time your family getting everything set up and try to beat it each time. This helps gamify what can be one of the most stressful parts of camping and encourages the kids to be involved. If the kids are little and can’t help set up, make sure you have some activities close at hand to keep them occupied during this time. Blow up a small paddling pool (minus the water) and put them in there with some toys to help contain them. Bear in mind, tents are sometimes jokingly known as a ‘divorce in a bag’, so take the stress out where you can!
Don’t forget the DOC camps (or laundrettes!)
Planning on getting away during the summer months, or last minute, but found everywhere you want to take the kids is booked out? Try the Department of Conservation campsites. They won’t have all the extra bells and whistles of the big commercial campgrounds, but they tend to be in truly amazing places and can have pretty good facilities. You’ll likely get more of a true ‘camping’ experience too. And you can always pop into town to use things like the laundrette if you need to.
#Hack 3: Love camping, but hate all the washing at the end? Consider packing up the washing and doing it at a laundrette. You can do it before you even leave the holiday if you want to. You can get more done faster in their big machines and whoever takes charge of this job gets to have a coffee and a sit down while they wait for it.
Involve the kids from the get-go (and try walkie talkies)
As well as involving kids in the set up (they can help unload the car, set up the bedding, pass the pegs…) involve them in the planning and packing too. Get their feedback on where they’d like to go and the sort of things they’d like to do. Then draw up a packing list with them and let them do their own packing (with you checking afterwards if need be). Make sure there are some wet weather games and activities on the list too.
And don’t forget to involve kids in the day-to-day running of camping life. Can they go and do the dishes by themselves? Help with dinner prep? Hang the togs and towels out? For the little ones, make sure you bring a couple of their favourite toys, to make things a little more familiar for them and help them settle in to camp life faster.
#Hack 4: If you’re wanting to give the kids a bit more camping freedom, consider investing in walkie talkies. That way you can keep tabs on them while they’re at the playground, doing the dishes, or biking around the camp.
Keep it clean (and how leaf blowers can help)
Part of the fun of camping is having fun and getting sandy and dirty. But it’s also part of the frustration when the kids are moaning about sand in the bottom of their sleeping bags and everywhere you walk feels gritty.
Bring a bucket and a couple of old towels to sit outside the tent or caravan door and make it a rule you must take your shoes off, and wash your feet if needed, before you come in. They likely won’t do it every time, but it all helps.
Speaking of buckets, an extra bucket here and there comes in handy when camping – for the overflow of dishes or the treasures found at the beach. Make sure you’ve packed an extra.
#Hack 5: We were jealous last summer of the families with handheld leaf blowers that they used to blow all the bits of leaves, sticks, sand, and dirt out of their tents and caravans. Worth considering for a quick and easy dirt solution.
Give the kids a budget (and start a gold coin stash)
Unless you’re camping remotely, you can still get pestered endlessly for money or treats. The camp shop may have lollies. And ice blocks. And pedal cars. Then there’s the real fruit ice cream place you pass on the way to the supermarket. To prevent blowing your budget (and your top) give the kids a daily spending allowance. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. It’s a great way of building independence (and learning some hard lessons about money) for those that are old enough and saves you from being pestered.
#Hack 6: Speaking of money – start saving those one- and two-dollar coins for the showers well ahead of time if you need them, so you have a stockpile. There’s nothing more annoying than trying to find gold coins first thing in the morning when you really want a shower, or a child has just fallen into a mud puddle.
Pack the fun! (Don’t forget the fairy lights)
Preparing for family camping can feel onerous at times, so make sure you keep some energy in reserve for adding in the fun bits – it’ll make all the difference to your trip.
Add a ‘camping magic’ section to your packing list. Be it the marshmallows and chocolate biscuits for around the campfire, a fun game to play together, or a breakfast cereal that you don’t normally let the kids have. Anything that will help make things just that little bit more special.
#Hack 7: Bring some fairy lights, or solar lights to help bling up the tent – it’s fun and it’ll help the kids find you in the dark. And bring coloured tape to put on any guy ropes the kids could accidentally trip over.
Let it go… (And why sleep matters)
It’s quite likely you will forget something. Or you’ll not shut the boot properly and the sleeping bags will fall out and one will roll out of reach over a hill (true story). Something – big or small – may well go awry while you’re away – it’s all part of the ‘roughing it’ experience! Use it as an opportunity to teach resilience and creative thinking. So, we forgot a lantern for the tent…. Put your head torch on a water bottle (with the light facing in towards the water bottle) and voila! Put your creative thinking cap on. Weirdly it’s the holidays where things go wrong that kids often remember the most.
#Hack 8: Camping is all about attitude. You’re not off to a five-star resort, so don’t expect a frictionless holiday. Embrace the challenges and liberation of being in the great outdoors! Try to ensure you aren’t too exhausted before you head away. Get a good night’s sleep first, and things will go much more smoothly.
Read more: Top kids’ camping activities >>
